What Can't Be
by Sis Strider
Summary: For the longest time, angels and demons have been at war, fighting on the side of order and chaos respectively. Kiyotaka Ishimaru is an angel who's been the guard of the angel heir, Makoto Naegi, all his life. Nagito Komaeda is the demon heir who is treated by his family like he doesn't exist. One day, Nagito is ordered to assassinate Makoto. Things happen.
1. Nagito Shows Someone His Stabs

note: this universe is pretty much detached from time. it has vaguely 16th century elements like palaces and cobblestones, and then things like monitors and keycard/fingerprint scanners right along side them.

like in trigger happy havoc, everyone is referred to by their first name, with no honorifics.

* * *

It was impossible for order and chaos to exist together, at least peacefully. The two forces could clash, and they had for eons, but coexisting was an impossible goal. They were compelled by some invisible force, maybe the laws of reality itself, to continually throw themselves against each other until one was destroyed. Order and chaos were complete opposites, after all. Chaos brought about change, free will, and pretty much doing whatever the hell you wanted. Order was the opposite of those things. For the record, neither of them was inherently better or worse than the other, despite what many thought. This still held true even when you were presented with the idea that the angels were aligned with order, and the demons with chaos. You would think that the angels would be good and the demons would be evil, but that was a very superficial way of looking at things. The actual politics were much more complex.

* * *

The Citadel, capital of Perspi, lay in the land's exact center. Everything was set up in a grid of perfectly square rows and columns, except for the lands surrounding the palace, in the Imperial District. That district was set up like a giant wheel, streets radiating off the palace in spokes. It was supposed to be the ultimate manifestation of order, where nothing out of the ordinary ever happened — no, could ever happen. And nobody appreciated this more than Makoto Naegi, the heir of Perspi.

Every day at eleven in the morning, the heir would take a walk along the outer rim of the Imperial District. Nothing ever changed about the area, but he took his walk nonetheless because it was part of his routine. As one of the most powerful angels, order had a special grip on him, and his habits were notoriously rooted into his mind. However, as far as habits went, there was one more habitual than he was. And as Makoto stood outside the palace, waiting, he could hear him arriving.

"Sir! Good morning!" exclaimed another angel as he approached the heir. "Everything is just fine, isn't it?"

"I told you, you don't have to call me Sir. Makoto will do just fine," replied Makoto with a hint of exasperation. He had tried to explain that countless times, but it had never really worked. He was getting somewhere, though, or at least he hoped. "And of course everything's just fine! We're in the Imperial District, the war can't get us from here. Any news about Drose, Kiyotaka?"

The person who had come up to him was the head of his personal guard. His name was Kiyotaka Ishimaru, and holy shit did he love order. Really. In all his life, Makoto had never seen anyone as passionate about their alignment as he was, not even his father, the king of the angels. Perhaps Kiyotaka would make a better heir than Makoto, but that was not how things worked. Makoto was the heir, and not anyone else. The natural balance of things could not be disrupted just because someone was more fond of order.

"Drose is still fighting to take control of our lands, but we will win! I just know it!" Kiyotaka exclaimed. Makoto realized with a sigh that Kiyotaka sounded just like the nationalistic Perspin propaganda that was prevalent in the city. It should have been a relief to see that his country could be kept at ease, but Makoto was honestly worried. Personally, he had doubts that they would win the war, and yet Kiyotaka had never entertained such a thought. The reasons that Kiyotaka should rule instead of him were really starting to pile up.

"Do you know how much land they took?" Makoto asked. It was confidential information, but someone of Kiyotaka's station had more than enough of the right to know it. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Yesterday, we had to give up a city that had been besieged for a year. Drose has a long way to go until they can get to our Citadel, but I'm worried..."

"Impossible!" Kiyotaka exclaimed, giving his wings a distressed flap. "We have to fight harder!"

Makoto only nodded. Everybody knew that already, but the real question was, would the angel forces really be capable of fighting harder? They could only hope. "And to think, Drose was once just a rebel town..."

"Yes! Millenia ago, Drose was corrupted by some malevolent force of chaos, and the inhabitants were turned into demons! They decided that they were going to overthrow our government and let chaos reign, and they've been fighting their way to our Citadel ever since! We're trying our hardest to destroy them, but Drose has taken enough land to be recognized as their own nation with their own capital. This war will only end with us destroying their capital, or them destroying ours," Kiyotaka said.

"Thank you for repeating what everyone learns in school," Makoto said flatly. "Huh, you even recited it word-for word. That's impressive, I guess..."

"Well, shall we begin our walk?" Kiyotaka looked down at his watch and almost screamed. "We spent an extra fifteen minutes talking in front of the palace today! That is completely against routine! What if chaos enters the District because of it?" He threw himself down in front of Makoto. "I'm so sorry, you should execute me now!"

Makoto blinked and helped him up instead of executing him. "No, it's fine, it's fine, that's not chaotic enough for anything bad to happen. If it makes you feel better, we can fly to the outer rim of the District and make up for lost time like that." Without waiting for a response, he spread his wings and flapped into the air, heading for the District's edge.

For several seconds, Kiyotaka just stood there, enthralled by Makoto's flight. As the heir and one of the most powerful angels, his wings were things of beauty, things that could make others stop and stare. At least Kiyotaka did. Snapping himself out of it, he flew after Makoto. "Sir, you have a majestic wingspan!" he exclaimed once he had caught up to the other angel.

"Um...thank you?" Makoto replied, slightly uncomfortable with the praise. Really, this wasn't as bad as the time Kiyotaka had asked him to get naked for some reason. That had been all but wiped from his memory, it had traumatized him that much. He respected Kiyotaka as a friend, but if anything got too uncomfortable for him, Makoto wouldn't hesitate to fire him and issue a restraining order. Grasping for an excuse to end this strange conversation, he said, "We're almost at the edge of the District, I'm going to dive." Without another word, he angled down and executed a swift dive for the cobblestone path. Not wanting to be so far away from the heir he was supposed to protect, Kiyotaka followed close after him.

They landed on the street and began their walk. As usual, Makoto admired the scenery of the District's edge and allowed all concerns about the war to leave him. Instead, he focused on the simple beauty of the streets. The inner edge of the road was lined with trees, and the outer edge was lined with bushes. Everything was perfect, exact, and orderly — just what you'd expect at the heart of the Citadel. He was so at peace here that nothing could disturb him, not even Kiyotaka's attempts at conversation, which always failed in one way or another. He didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, either, like a nearby bush rustling even though the day wasn't windy enough to blow the plants around.

However, as someone who had been trained nearly his entire life to fight, and to fight to defend and protect the heir, specifically, Kiyotaka noticed it all. The rustling of the bush. The dark-winged figure who rose out of it. The flash of steel as they lunged towards Makoto.

"Sir! Watch out!" Kiyotaka shoved Makoto to the side, but the attacker was too swift and the blade plunged into Makoto's chest. The stab had certainly been aimed at his heart, but Kiyotaka's movement had diverted the knife a few inches to the side. "Demon assassin!" Kiyotaka screamed out, and tackled the attacker. The knife was wrenched out of Makoto, accompanied by a spurt of blood.

The attacker's wings beat heavily as he tried to fly away and escape from Kiyotaka. He was faster than Kiyotaka, but also weaker, and so his attempt at escape didn't go anywhere. Kiyotaka's wings flapped as well as he tried to gain leverage against the attacker, and soon their fight devolved into a massive slap fight with wings. However, Kiyotaka was at least able to knock the weapon away in the struggle, and when the attacker tried to get down and retrieve his knife, reinforcements finally arrived and tackled the demon to the ground. There were so many guard angels on him that Kiyotaka thought the attacker was going to be crushed to death.

"We've got this!" exclaimed one of the guards as they all piled off the now subdued attacker. She handcuffed the demon and the guards led him away.

With that taken care of, Kiyotaka was finally able to attend to Makoto. Someone had removed his overcoat and bandaged him up, and the coat was lying next to him. Pocketing the knife the assassin had used, Kiyotaka carefully picked up Makoto and started down the closest road to the palace. This had to be his fault, detaining Makoto for those extra fifteen minutes really had invited enough chaos for a demon assassin to enter the Imperial District.

"Sir, you should have executed me when you could..." he said. Of course, Makoto did not respond, since he was unresponsive and possibly dead. People spoke in hushed tones as he passed, wondering what had happened to the heir. Was he going to survive this? Was this going to affect the morale of the people? And how was Makoto's father the king going to handle this? Nobody knew the answer.

"Doctor!" yelled Kiyotaka as soon as he entered the palace. "Someone get a doctor over here! The heir has been injured!"

A doctor quickly came and flew away with Makoto, carrying him to his bedroom. Kiyotaka was left in the room outside, worriedly pacing in front of the door. He didn't know what he would do without Makoto. The king joined him soon, having been informed by a servant as soon as Makoto had been brought to the palace.

"I tried to save him..." Kiyotaka said sullenly when he saw him. "We managed to apprehend the attacker, but I don't know if Makoto will make it..."

"He has to," the king said. His fierce tone took Kiyotaka aback. "Those rebellious brats cannot get away with an attack in the heart of our Citadel. That will send the wrong message to our people." The king went over to the door and knocked once. "Open it, I'm here to see my son."

"Excuse me, Your Majesty, but the heir is in bad condition," the doctor replied, opening the door slightly. "Nobody can be allowed to see him until he is stable."

"Do you know who I am?" the king asked, standing up very straight and glaring down at the doctor. As he was extremely tall, this was an intimidating technique. "I must see my son."

The doctor gulped. "Well, I suppose he's stable enough to be visited..." She opened the door, allowing the king and Kiyotaka to enter.

"What happened to him?" Kiyotaka blurted as soon as he saw his unconscious friend. "I don't think he lost enough blood to be knocked out like this! He isn't...dead, is he?"

"He's not," the king hurriedly replied. "There is no way a child of mine could be dispatched so easily by some common demon scum."

"Well, the fact that a demon stabbed him means that the blade was infused with chaos energy," the doctor explained. "His immune system is fighting hard to expel the chaos, and this is using all his energy. If he isn't strong enough, he might...he might turn, or even die."

"Turn? Turning would be worse!" Kiyotaka exclaimed. "If a powerful angel like him turns into a demon, we'll have a hard time fighting him! And I'm sure nobody here wants to have to fight him!"

"I will do what I must," the king replied. "But I won't like it. How long until he regains consciousness?"

"He will wake up again when either the order or the chaos wins out," the doctor answered. "An angel cannot live normally in a state of neutrality like this."

Kiyotaka sighed, looking at Makoto once more. He knew that Makoto could overcome the chaos energy, but he still felt that he could have done more to protect him from the attacker. He could have even taken the blade himself. He was sure he had enough willpower to resist turning, and the country would be down one guard instead of down one heir. They would have been able to live with that.

"Makoto..." the king muttered, sinking down into a chair. He turned to look at the other people in the room and said, "Leave. I need some time alone with my son."

"But Your Majesty, his condition might destabilize at any time," the doctor pointed out. "Medical staff needs to be on hand at all times to administer treatment as soon as possible."

"Once again, do you know who I am?" The king stood up and spread his wings, smacking Kiyotaka in the face in the process. "I am Byakuya Togami, the leader of this realm. You are in no position to tell me to do anything. Now, leave."

The doctor forced herself to smile and speak pleasantly. "Well, if anything goes wrong, the monitors he's hooked up to will start beeping. I hope you'll forgive my intrusion then." She backed out of the room, shoving Kiyotaka along with her, and slammed the door. "He's devastated," she commented as soon as the door was closed. "Honestly, I didn't know he could care so much for someone else."

"Who couldn't care for Makoto, honestly?" Kiyotaka asked wistfully. "He's always been so cheerful, I wouldn't be surprised if he could brighten even his father's spirits. He's wonderful, isn't —"

He was interrupted by the arrival of a guard, specifically the one who had handcuffed Makoto's attacker. "Kiyotaka, sir! We managed to find out the identity of the assassin," she informed him.

"Who is it?" Kiyotaka asked as soon as the words had left her mouth. He wanted to know who exactly was responsible for doing this to Makoto so he could feel a more personal animosity towards the demon. The other guard started back, surprised by his desperation. However, she composed herself quickly enough to reply.

"It's the heir of Drose, Nagito Komaeda!"

* * *

The tower in the center of the palace was a luxurious apartment, the likes of which were usually reserved only for the king's most important guests. However, this sumptuous appearance only served to mask the tower's true purpose. It was a holding cell for the king's most important political prisoners. The only access to the apartments was through the dungeons under the palace, and the door was well-guarded and locked with five different locks, a keycard scanner, and a fingerprint scanner. This ensured that the only an angel who was meant to open the door could open it, and not anybody else. The windows were fitted with specially reinforced glass, and opened onto ledges that guards constantly patrolled. For all purposes, it was the perfect example of a gilded cage.

This was the tower Nagito had been taken to once the guards had figured out who he was. It hadn't been obvious that he was Drose's heir, what with his more casual clothing, but he had acted like the demon of high status he was when guards had interrogated him. Previously, he had been imprisoned in the dungeons, but once the guards had realized his status, it became of paramount importance to make sure his position within the Citadel was secured. He might have had reinforcements within the city already, and if he escaped he might call them and march on the palace. Even if he didn't, he had information on the layout of the Citadel and the Imperial District, and that information couldn't be allowed to fall into the hands of demons.

It wasn't like Nagito could do much of anything, though. He was surrounded by an order so rigid that subduing him would take practically no effort at all. The heart of Perspi tended to do that to demons. Prisoners taken on either side were as good as dead. All Nagito felt like doing was lie down in his room, staring out the window and rubbing the emerald pendant he wore. Apparently, emeralds had something to do with chaos, but he had no idea how.

He didn't know if he had succeeded in killing Perspi's heir. He had wounded him, all right, but that other angel had shoved the heir to the side, and Nagito had been unable to stab him in the heart for an almost certain kill. Maybe he had gotten a lung, or something, but he had heard the guards whisper about how they hoped the heir of Perspi would pull through and survive. So Nagito figured he had left Makoto in critical condition, on a fine line between life and death. He had always been pretty lucky, the heir might yet die. Then again, Makoto was said to be lucky, as well.

No matter what he made up to console himself, though, Nagito was still in a terrible position. He was trapped in the enemy's stronghold, with no way to escape. Drose had essentially lost its heir, which could either strengthen the demons' resolve in the war or weaken it. He would probably be forced to divulge information about his country, tortured if he didn't give it up willingly enough, and eventually be executed after he ceased to provide useful information. And his mother probably wouldn't care if that happened.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, Nagito sat up. His wings twitched as he tried to rid them of the cramps he had gotten for lying on his back for so long. At least they hadn't cuffed his wings. The guards had removed his handcuffs once he was safe inside the tower, as well. It was literally the least they could have done for him. The tower was so well-guarded that it really didn't matter if he could fly or not. Even with his wings free, he wouldn't be able to escape.

The door opened and the angel who had pushed Makoto out of the way entered. Kiyotaka had never seen the Drosen heir before, but now that he had he felt like he was going to be sick. Nagito looked like he was a mockery of Makoto, and since he had been the one to attack the Perspin heir, this similarity enraged Kiyotaka.

"Drose sent you to assassinate the heir? They must be desperate," Kiyotaka said as he entered. "I don't know if it's a chaos thing, but Perspi wouldn't be as stupid as to send an important person on a mission like this!"

"'Sent?' Drosen people aren't too big on forcing others to do their bidding. I could be here on my own volition," Nagito replied. However, he wasn't. His mother had made him do it, and crossing her would condemn him to a fate worse than death. Since the angels believed that everyone in Drose was a malevolent entity hellbent on destroying everything, maybe he could work this to his advantage. "Except, I wasn't. Mother sent me, and Auntie goes along with whatever she says."

"Mother?" Kiyotaka asked. "Do you mean Queen Junko Enoshima of Drose?"

Nagito glared at him. "Are you saying you think I'm a bastard? Of course she's my mother."

"Well, no wonder she would use such underhanded techniques, then, like sending her own son into the Citadel to kill our heir! I don't want to understand you rebel scum, honestly," Kiyotaka commented, glaring down at Nagito.

Nagito leaped to his feet, unable to take an insult like that from the biggest hypocrite he had ever seen. He had known Kiyotaka for all of a minute, and he could already tell that he was a huge hypocrite. "Really? 'Rebel scum?' You Perspins aren't any better, you're all oppressors! You force everyone to comply to strict guidelines in the name of order...us demons aren't the monsters you think we are. We're just the only ones brave enough to fight against your oppressive regime! In fact, the fact that you're fighting us shows how bad you are! You can't accept that anyone would do things differently than you do!"

"You're in a horrible position to say those kinds of things!" Kiyotaka retorted. "Since you're in here for trying to assassinate Makoto, I refuse to listen to a word you say! If I had my way, I'd have had you executed as soon as possible! I can't even stand looking at you, you're like...a corrupted version of him!"

"Makoto...Makoto...Makoto." Nagito smirked. "If I were you, I would tone down on the 'undying love for Makoto' bit."

"I do not!" Kiyotaka quickly replied.

There was no undying love for the heir of Drose, though. Nobody loved him like that, and nobody ever would. His own family didn't love him, so why would anyone else? "You love him enough to try to push him out of the way of my knife," Nagito pointed out.

"I'm the head of his personal guard, it's my job to protect him," Kiyotaka explained. "Besides, I'm not good enough for Makoto! I'm not even nobility. But enough about that, what can you tell me about Drose's war effort?"

At first, Nagito was unwilling to say a word on his country's situation. The fact that he was the unloved heir had just been hammered in his face, and it still stung. And then he remembered that he was supposed to be trying to manipulate the guard into letting him go. "If you want strategy and formations, that isn't how chaos works," he finally said. "It's safe for me to say this because on the battlefield, it's already been established that order cannot comprehend how to deal with chaos. That, and my aunt's the best military leader Drose has seen since the war's begun. And her son, my cousin Hajime...he's perfect, that's what he is. He's months older than me, and he's already a general! Everyone knows that Mother would rather have Hajime as a son than me," he finished spitefully.

Kiyotaka had started to feel sorry for the demon, but then he remembered the still form of Makoto lying on his bed, and all the pity he felt evaporated. "So...it seems the head of the military and her son are Perspi's largest threats, then. Is that all you can tell me? If it is, excuse me while I arrange your execution right away."

"Go ahead," Nagito replied bitterly. "If you do that, Mother will probably just make Hajime the heir of Drose, just like she's always wanted to." Kiyotaka froze, trying to piece this together. If Hajime was as dangerous as Nagito had hinted he was, then getting rid of Nagito and inadvertently putting Hajime in a position of power would spell Perspi's doom. Under Hajime's leadership, the Drosen forces might rally and crush the angels. And maybe sparing Nagito's life wasn't enough, the queen of Drose might name Hajime as the new heir since her son was as good as gone. Perhaps it would be a good idea to let him go, after all.

"But...Makoto!" he said to himself. "Makoto would want you dead," Kiyotaka said coldly, addressing Nagito now. "It would only be right if I carried out his wishes."

"Yes, so if you would just let me go right now — wait, what?" Nagito fell backwards, his wings awkwardly crumpling beneath him. "Wait! I can tell you other things, but just not today! Don't do this, I thought angels were supposed to be merciful!"

"There's no reason to show mercy towards you," Kiyotaka replied, "not after what you've done. Very well, then! I'll return tomorrow." Turning around, he left the room, leaving Nagito to sit and contemplate his emerald necklace again.

As far as manipulation went, that had gone horribly. For a moment there, Nagito thought he had gotten the guard to let him out when he had spoken about Hajime, but he had failed to factor in one thing. The guard's love for Makoto effectively stopped him from showing Nagito any mercy, as he believed either that Makoto wouldn't have shown him mercy, either, or that he needed to avenge the Perspin heir. Love was a powerful influence in decision making, one that Nagito had never had any access to. That was a shame. It would be a useful tool for him in a situation like this, where his fate was entirely at the whims of others, whims that he could only influence to a certain extent.

He scowled, realizing that he had essentially been thinking of seducing that angel guard. That couldn't happen, his upbringing had caused him to absolutely despise angels. There was no doubt that guard hated demonkind, as well. After all, he had called Nagito rebel scum, and then turned around and said that he was not good enough for Makoto, who was of similar social standing to Nagito. That could only mean that he had thought of demons as far below the angels. However, if this was the only way to get out of the tower he was in, then he needed to at least try.

A small part of him admitted that maybe he just wanted to be loved by someone, as well. If no demon would love him, not even his own family, then maybe an angel would suffice. An angel who was head over heels for someone else, sure, but it wasn't like he had very many options. And in that moment, he realized that he hated Makoto Naegi, because he had ruined all aspects of Nagito's life in one way or another. He had shaped Nagito's appearance, as his mother had essentially turned him into a demon version of Makoto. Her message was clear: he had to be like Makoto, except better. Makoto had gotten him thrown in jail, as he was the one Nagito had needed to assassinate. And now, he was stealing Nagito's one chance at escaping from the Citadel.

"Am I really that desperate?" he groaned, throwing himself on the bed. He knew the answer though. He was desperate, desperate to get out at least. Wondering whether someone loved him or not wasn't high on his priority list when he was a political prisoner. He'd do whatever it took to escape, though. If he was exposed to the high amounts of order in the Citadel for too long, he would eventually lose his mind.

Since Drosen forces would probably be unable to enter the city on such a large scale, the only things Nagito could really depend on to get him out of the tower were his wits. Getting up, he went to the door and tested it. It was unlocked. The door lead to a long spiral staircase that presumably led to the entrance to the tower, down in the dungeons. Nagito descended it, numerous large windows allowing the tower guards to see what he was doing and stop him if they felt that he was getting close to escaping. However, the guard angels didn't even turn around to look at the prisoner they were supposed to be guarding. The tower was so secure that they didn't even have to bother with that.

Eventually, Nagito came to a door at the foot of the stairs. The windows had stopped showing up a while ago, so he knew that he was far enough down the tower for it to have merged with the main palace building. He didn't know if it was the door to the dungeons, and though he knew it probably was, he tested it anyway. No matter what he didn't the door didn't move an inch.

"Hmm..." Nagito looked around, wondering what he could do in the space he was in. He would have to wait for the guard to open the door, and then get past him, but was there anywhere he could hide? If the guard saw him down near the tower's exit, he'd probably be prepared to stop an escape attempt. There were heavy drapes hanging above the door, and Nagito wondered if he could get behind those. He flew up to them and slipped behind them, hanging onto the curtain rod. The guard wouldn't suspect anything if he didn't look up, but the curtain rod wouldn't support Nagito's weight forever, not to mention the fact that the demon heir couldn't hold on forever. If he was going to hide here, he'd have to do it just before the guard went into the tower.

And that wasn't the only thing that might go wrong. "Well, why would there be curtains above a door?" Nagito asked himself. There might be traps planted behind the curtain, just in case a prisoner tried to hide up there to get the jump on anyone who opened the door. Since it was what he was currently doing, it was a valid idea. Nagito carefully felt the wall to see if he would set off anything, but nothing happened. It seemed that the Perspins just had really stupid design choices, after all.

Well, that was a relief. He could certainly pull of an escape from the tower, then. He may not have been conditioned for physical combat like his cousin Hajime, but he was an extremely strong flyer. Vividly, he could remember his cousin getting annoyed with him since he could never win a single race against him. They had been on okay, maybe even good, terms, back then. But now they weren't, and that was really all there was to say on the matter.

Dropping to the floor, Nagito twitched his wings. He couldn't get in as many wing exercises as he usually did, owing to the close quarters, but he would deal with it later. He still had a good amount of time before the muscles would deteriorate from lack of use. He was reminded of the angel prisoners he had seen before. Their wings hung limp and shrivelled behind them, and a good majority of the angels were half-mad from the chaos energy around them. From what little he had seen of the dungeons, the captive demons were like that, too. It was worrying to think that he could be reduced to that, and even more troublesome to know that many of his people had been.

It would probably drag him down, but he resolved to free the demon prisoners if he could. Maybe the Drosens would love him, then, for looking out for demonkind. But he was thinking too far ahead. He wasn't even out of captivity yet.

Flapping his wings, Nagito rose into the air and shot up and around the spiral staircase. A few guard angels turned around when they saw a blurred figure out of the corner of their eyes, but couldn't see anything when they turned around. It was still no big deal. This was the palace's most secure cell, the captive heir could do anything, but he wouldn't be able to escape.

When he got back to his room, Nagito tried to return to staring out the windows, but he couldn't. The sun was going down, and its light was seemingly reflecting off every gold and marble surface in the Imperial District (there were a lot of those) and right into his tower. Drose was gloomy and overcast most of the time, and he wasn't used to the sunlight. He had been uneasy because of it before, but this was almost unbearable.

He supposed that this was on purpose, to weaken the types of powerful demons the tower was reserved for, but then he noticed the open curtains around the windows. The angels weren't actively trying to weaken him, their city was just gaudy. Shutting the curtains worked well enough for him. The fabric was in light colors, but thick, and so the inside of the room was almost completely dark. This was no problem, Nagito could see fairly well in the darkness.

He didn't need to see though, he was going to sleep. It had been a long day, and it wasn't like he could do anything else in the tower. Actually, he probably could, but it wasn't anything he wanted to do. The only thing he wanted to do was escape, and he couldn't execute his plan until he knew what times the guard would come by to do whatever he was supposed to. These were angels he was with, after all — in Drose prison guards came by whenever, but the angels probably had a strict timetable they had to adhere to at all times.

Flopping onto the bed, Nagito tried to think up strategies to subdue the guard. There were many things in the apartments that he could use, but he had to think of the best way to use him. Recalling his brief fight with the angel, Nagito knew that he wouldn't be able to overpower him by himself. He needed to weaken the guard somehow, and then he would have a higher chance of getting past him.

Whatever escape plan he made would turn out fine, he had always been pretty lucky.

Reassured by that, Nagito fell asleep.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kiyotaka was returning to Makoto's room. He was in a bad mood from the confrontation with the assassin, and he honestly wanted Nagito to die. It was for Makoto's sake, the Drosen heir shouldn't be able to live while the Perspin heir died. Even if Makoto would have been unsure about killing Nagito, Kiyotaka had to get the demon executed. It was for justice, after all. Surely, Makoto would understand.

And even if he didn't, it wouldn't matter anyway. The king would obviously be interested in executing Nagito at some point in time. He was a major enemy of the state. And now that Kiyotaka knew that Nagito's mother wasn't exactly concerned about him, executing the demon without fear of a backlash from Drose seemed likely. There were so many reasons to do it, he might as well tell the king.

Approaching the door, he knocked and called announced, "Sir? Are you awake yet?"

There was no answer from Makoto, but the king opened the door to speak to him. "He's not doing any better or worse from what I can tell. Enough about that, though. Did you get any information out of the heir?"

"Not much," Kiyotaka replied. "He was more interested in venting about his family problems and telling me information that's common sense already. The one thing he could say was that the head of the military and her immediate subordinate, who is also her son, are dangerous."

The king scoffed. "He's useless. Force some more information out of him, there has to be something he knows."

"Well, his family seems not to care about him much," Kiyotaka continued. "If we execute him, Drose won't rally and fight harder for it. That's what he made it seem like, anyway. But he could just be deceiving me!" He looked past the king and at Makoto, then shook his head. "It doesn't matter though, he has to be executed for what he did to Makoto! How do you think he should be executed? I will prepare whatever you decide! I can get hangmen, executioners, guillotines, gas chambers, electric chairs..." Kiyotaka continued to list ways of executing Nagito until the king finally cut him off.

"That's enough, I get the point," he said. "Are you sure that he won't be of any more use, though?"

Kiyotaka shook his head. "It's for Makoto's sake, he deserves this! And the execution should be a public spectacle, too. We have to send a message to Drose: Order will triumph over chaos!" He would have struck a dramatic pose, but the king would have disapproved of such shenanigans.

"Are you saying that you believed that I'd want to let him live? Eventually, I'll have him executed, of course. Letting the enemy live would show considerable weakness on my part," the king replied. "Makoto does deserve justice, but this, to the very end, is politics. Emotion such as yours has no place in it."

Kiyotaka gulped. Did that mean that the king knew how he felt about Makoto? He wouldn't approve, there was no way that he would. "The sooner the better, though! It's a waste of resources to have him imprisoned in the palace, isn't it?"

"It's all the same as resources going to the war effort," the king said dismissively. "It's impossible for him to be the heir of Drose and not know any information about the country that will be helpful to us. Even if the Drosen royal family doesn't care for him, he probably spends his time in the center of their country, surrounded by their political secrets."

"But...for Makoto!" Unfortunately for Kiyotaka, he couldn't quite formulate a stronger argument for executing Nagito right away.

Even more unfortunate was that Byakuya had a solid argument for why they should wait to do that. "Makoto is not dead yet. He should be the one to choose how his attacker will be executed."

"True, he would know best..." Kiyotaka said.

"It's better to wait until Makoto either wakes up and go back to normal, turns, or dies." Kiyotaka flinched a little at that last one, but the king continued speaking. "If he recovers, he can choose the method of execution, but if he turns or dies, then we will first deal with that and I will choose. In the meantime, you need to continue to interrogate the heir."

"Right," Kiyotaka said, looking at Makoto again. "I'll do just that. You can count on me! Do you still want to be alone with him? I can go if you want."

"I have already determined that he is not going to wake up soon," the king replied. "Right now, I'm going to focus on the war effort. Why do you ask, though?"

"Well, I would like to be alone with Makoto for a while, as well!" Kiyotaka replied. "Of course, I totally understand that I am in absolutely no way in any position to ask you to do anything. You can tell me to go back to my post and I'd do it, and I'd even go back and interrogate the attacker more if you'd like!"

Byakuya sighed. "It's too soon after the first interrogation. The prisoner is likely of the same mindset he was when you left him. Since you said he was unresponsive, interrogating him again will do nothing. Unless you're trying to wear him down. Nonetheless, I have a military conference I need to go to. If you have to, then by all means, stay with my son."

Kiyotaka nearly smiled, but if anything would make the king realize that he felt that way for Makoto it would be that. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he said instead, nodding.

He entered Makoto's room as the king left, shutting the door behind him. Kiyotaka sat down at Makoto's bedside and looked down at him. He couldn't tell what was going on with the chaos energy in his body, but he hoped that Makoto would be able to overcome it and everything would be all right.

"Sir, I'm sorry this had to happen to you..." he said. Nobody heard it.


	2. Culture Shock

vaguely sexual stuff happens, i don't know if this should be m or not, let me know if you think so.

* * *

Kiyotaka dreamed of dark wings and shadowy forms. He was back in the street with Makoto, and they were beginning their walk. Knowing what to look out for now, he managed to catch the slight movements of the bush before the demon popped out. He could do it now. He'd be able to get Makoto out of the way before he was attacked.

"Sir! Watch out!" he yelled just as the demon rose out of the bush. This time, he was able to throw Makoto completely behind him. The knife went right into his heart, and he didn't care. This was what he was meant to do — use his life to protect Makoto, no matter the cost.

The pain made his vision blurry, but as he fell back he realized that the attacker was not the Nagito Komaeda he had met in the tower. No, this was much worse.

The attacker was a demon-turned Makoto Naegi, and he looked coldly down at Kiyotaka as he felt the life leave him.

* * *

Gasping for breath, Kiyotaka woke up. He was exactly in the same place he had been the night before, at Makoto's bedside. In his current position, slumped over the bed, he was inches away from Makoto's body and he could feel the heat radiating off of him. This wouldn't do at all. He wasn't supposed to be this close to Makoto in any sense of the word.

Even if he really wanted to.

"Sir, I'm sorry!" It was just habit for him to address Makoto, even if said angel was comatose. As he said this, he jerked himself backwards and off the bed, only to lose his balance when the chair tipped backwards. Uselessly, he flailed in an effort to right himself, but all that accomplished was tearing off some of the electrodes attached to Makoto. The machines those were hooked up to started beeping loudly and obnoxiously. As for Kiyotaka, he fell back onto the ground, his head hitting the carpeted floor with an unpleasant crack.

Hearing the monitors go off, the doctor ran into the room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Kiyotaka on the floor and the disconnected electrodes. "What did you _do_?" she asked, glaring down at the guard.

"I fell over," Kiyotaka explained. He got up and rubbed the back of his head when the sudden change of position gave him a headache. "I'm going to...go guard Makoto's apartments now," he said. "It's my shift."

The doctor nodded. "Next time, watch out for these cables. I thought there was an emergency."

Heading out of the room, Kiyotaka realized he was ridiculously hungry. The previous day, he had been too busy sitting by Makoto to eat dinner. He changed course and went to the kitchen, where there was always a meal laid out for him, and another one that he was supposed to take to Makoto. When he arrived he saw that two dishes had been left for him as usual, even though Makoto wasn't going to be able to eat for a while.

This was a waste, something that Kiyotaka wasn't about to condone. He was about to set the record straight, but then he realized that he was the only one who could access the tower Nagito was imprisoned in. Nobody else would be able to give him food. Starving the prisoner to death had not been part of his orders, and so he decided to go down to the dungeons to bring him food.

When he went down, many of the prisoners glared at him. They were presumably starving to death, only for a guard to come down and walk by with good food to bring to whoever was in the tower. Some prisoners knew that it was their heir, but they didn't care about that. Besides, they were all prisoners in the enemy country. His status shouldn't have meant anything.

Kiyotaka reached the top of the tower only to see something he really didn't expect to see.

Nagito had his hand down his pants, and he looked extremely annoyed that someone had walked in. He wasn't shocked or embarrassed at all — he was the heir of Drose and he could do whatever the hell he wanted. Making people leave was certainly included in that.

"I'll leave!" Kiyotaka exclaimed before the demon could tell him to. Putting the trays of food down on the table — he couldn't just drop them on the ground like some kind of manifestation of chaos, after all — he exited the room and hastily made his way down the tower. This had completely disrupted everything. Now he wouldn't be able to do everything on time, unless he was able to get information out of Nagito quickly, somehow. He probably wouldn't be able to do that, either. Nagito had probably been doing that for shock value, as well. That was how demons operated, shock value was one of their favored tactics. They did the most outrageous things they could to throw off their enemies, and then struck while the angels were weakened. Yes, Kiyotaka had found that to be outrageous. The poor guy had been wholly unable to handle seeing something like that, and now he was going to get the hell out of there.

There had to be something else he could do around the palace, anyway. Someone had to need guarding of some sort, like Makoto's parents. The king and queen had their own groups of personal guards, but one more person in the guard had to be appreciated. Protecting their lives was of top priority, and surely security had been heightened around them after Makoto had been attacked. It would make sense for the royal guard to be looking for others to help protect the king and queen. That was what he was going to do, Kiyotaka decided. He was going to go join the personal guard of the king and queen as a part-time job until their son woke up again. Dealing with the heir of Drose was in no way working out.

He was interrupted by a sudden loud noise coming from the top of the tower, one that could only be produced by one thing. It startled Kiyotaka so much that he misstepped and fell down the rest of the stairs, landing at the bottom with an impact that actually left him immobilized in shock for a few moments. The fall hadn't been a large distance since he had been close to the bottom, but knocking his chair over previously had taken quite a bit out of him already. He'd had enough of falling, already. Hopefully he didn't have a head injury after that.

Standing up was horrible, Kiyotaka thought that the room was tilting all over the place. He went out of the room complaining about how horribly effective shock value tactics were. There was no way Nagito wasn't doing that to mess with him.

He made it up the stairs, out of the dungeon, and halfway down the hall when the hunger pangs got to him. It wasn't a debilitating pain, but it was still uncomfortable to walk like that. Food would have to be found somewhere. He had a few choices: go back up the tower and eat his food, or go to the kitchens and make something up about how he had dropped the food or a prisoner had stolen it, getting something else to eat in the process. That last option seemed easier, but it required lying to the kitchen staff, which just didn't feel right to him. Besides, if he went back to the tower, it would mean that he had been able to overcome Nagito's shock tactics. If those tactics had really worked on Kiyotaka, then they would become a reliable method to keep him out of the tower. He couldn't be left at the mercy of a prisoner. That would be completely embarrassing, and then there would be no choice but to kick him out of Makoto's personal guard, which was the last thing Kiyotaka wanted. Makoto's safety was the most important thing to him. If he couldn't oversee it himself, he'd always feel that whoever was doing that was doing it wrong.

And so he went back down into the dungeons, then up all those stairs to the tower. He would have flown, but that would just be a drain on his energy, and also pretty difficult. Those tight turns around the spiralling stairwell were hard to pull off for almost everyone. He had never been a particularly good flyer, not like members of the royal family.

At the top, Nagito was drying his hands on a towel when he noticed Kiyotaka enter again. "Huh? You're back already?" he asked, his eyes widening in shock. "You told me you were going to leave."

"Obviously I wouldn't leave forever," Kiyotaka retorted. "Besides, I left my breakfast up here."

"Breakfast?" Nagito frowned. "Let me guess, you wouldn't give me any. You know, I haven't eaten in a day. I feel like I'm going to die."

Kiyotaka was about to say something about rich people, but then he remembered that he had returned to the tower to get his food back. "No, I wouldn't, because I brought food for you already. You should be grateful, this would have been Makoto's breakfast if he wasn't...you know." This wasn't right. Nagito had stabbed Makoto, and the consequences he faced for his crime were...living in a luxurious tower (even if he couldn't leave it) and getting to eat food meant for Makoto. This was a major injustice, but Kiyotaka couldn't really do anything about it. It was just the way things were.

Nagito smiled, picking up on this perfectly. "If he wasn't currently immobilized, his body fighting hard to expel chaos energy that may kill him, or turn him into a demon that will have to be killed anyway?" he cheerfully finished for Kiyotaka. He seemed so smug about it that the guard would like nothing more than to punch him in the face and shut him up, but it wouldn't be appreciated. Random acts of violence were nowhere near appreciated in Perspi. They were too chaotic, for one thing. Anything that was random was considered too chaotic.

Besides, prison beatings were harsh. Once, Kiyotaka had accompanied Makoto to the front lines to welcome angels who had been rescued from Drose's prisoner of war camps. They had sustained injuries that looked brutal, which had greatly disturbed both the heir and his guard. From then on, Kiyotaka had promised that Perspi would not use such tactics in the royal dungeons on his watch, and he was going to uphold that promise. The only way he could deal with Nagito was to ignore all the inflammatory things he said.

"...yes, if he wasn't doing that," Kiyotaka replied. He was rewarded with another look of shock on Nagito's face as his attempt to break the guard failed. "Anyway, are you going to eat? I'll wait here until you're finished so I won't have to make so many trips up and down this tower."

"What, you can't fly up the stairs without getting tired?" Nagito taunted. It was the same way he would have teased Hajime when they were younger. Hajime always got ridiculously angry, which Nagito had found hilarious — until his cousin had decided to retaliate, that is. But now Hajime looked down on him as a lost cause, the way Nagito's mother had indoctrinated him. It was almost exhilarating to be able to tease someone like that again, even an enemy.

"No," Kiyotaka replied. If he lied about it, Nagito would probably make an inflammatory remark to try to get him to fly down the stairs. Besides, the Drosen royal family must have consisted of good flyers like the Perspin one. Looking at Nagito's wings, Kiyotaka could certainly understand that. The demon's wings were folded behind him, but Kiyotaka figured that when they were opened, Nagito's wingspan was just as good or maybe even better than Makoto's. It went without saying that demons didn't have the same white-feathered wings as angels. Instead, they were black, leathery skin. Because of the lack of feathers, Kiyotaka could faintly see the musculature of the heir's wings, and inferred that he spent a lot of time flying. Those wings were imposing, and Kiyotaka was in awe and frightened. And slightly aroused.

One of those things did not belong there. Kiyotaka threw the errant thought out, and if it had been a physical object it would have been thrown with such force that one of the reinforced tower windows would shatter. All but one of the curtains were drawn for some reason, though. He supposed demons preferred the darkness, another thing that made them different from angels. All the things he had heard about Drose made it seem like a place where the sun never shone. It would explain why Nagito was so pale.

"...he fell right into someone's garbage can, and I'm pretty sure that's why Hajime hates me, even without Mother to tell him how to think," Nagito finished. Kiyotaka blinked and looked up. Apparently the demon had been talking about something. He wasn't finished, either. "Seriously. I'm practically the only person in the royal family who isn't policed by Mother! Auntie's just her little yes-man outside of the battlefield. You could replace her with a bobblehead, and..." He sighed. "That's one good thing about not being the favored one."

"I'm sorry, were you saying something?" Kiyotaka asked. Nagito didn't take that too well. He slapped the guard with one of his wings, which stung quite a bit. There was no doubt that there had been a lot of power behind that strike. The errant thoughts almost returned, and Kiyotaka grasped at anything else you can think about. "Are you attacking guards now?"

"I'm not going to make a habit out of it, relax," Nagito assured him. "I just don't like being ignored. I'm the heir of Drose, everyone should listen to me."

Kiyotaka huffed. Makoto was nowhere near this egotistical. "I don't think that applies to angels," he pointed out.

"Whatever! I'm going to have breakfast now, unless you've made me waste so much time talking to you the food's gone cold. I'm not going to eat cold food." After sampling some of the food, however, Nagito learned that he wasn't eating cold food.

"I wouldn't have brought you anything else to eat anyway," Kiyotaka replied, sitting as far away from Nagito as he could. That wasn't saying much, it was a little square table. "You've wasted enough of my time already with your talking."

"Isn't your job to come up here so I can tell you things, though?" Nagito asked, pointing his fork at the guard angel.

"You are misunderstanding the concept of interrogations," Kiyotaka observed. "You're supposed to be telling me about Drose, and giving me information about things Perspi can use to their advantage. I'm sure all these things about your family hating you are entirely irrelevant to the war effort and Drose as a whole!"

Because it was true, Nagito had nothing to say about it. He was irrelevant. Perspi had gotten the wrong political prisoner. "Yeah," he finally said. "Guess I could always tell you some better things. Family issues are the most upsetting to me, though."

"They're not useful, though! If you don't cooperate, we're going to have to torture you. I'd rather not have to bring out the instruments of torture," Kiyotaka said, thinking with disdain about those instruments. "And we're on a time limit, as well! As soon as Makoto wakes up again, you'll be executed!"

Nagito's wings flicked the air idly, a motion that immediately caught the guard's eye. "Yeah, whatever you say..."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiyotaka asked. The demon heir's nonchalance about getting killed was offputting. There had to be some kind of ulterior element to all this. Maybe the assassination attempt was part of a bigger plot, because there was no way Drose would just send its heir off on a high-risk mission like this.

"Your threats are _boring_," Nagito replied, smiling. "Remember, Makoto might die."

Kiyotaka dropped his fork. "Well, even if he does, which is highly unlikely because he is strong enough to survive...then you're dying anyway! Then you'd deserve it even more, for actually killing the heir! Even if you were an angel you would die for that crime, because it would be high treason!"

"In Drose, I don't think killing me would be high treason," Nagito commented. "There have been a ridiculous amount of assassination attempts, and nobody has really ever gotten arrested for that. Even if they are, they always get 'mysteriously' freed from prison hours later. I could tell because I know who was doing it. One of the assassins was —" Here he stabbed his plate with his fork, unwilling to go on. "Whatever. It's not important anymore."

"That is...absolutely terrible," Kiyotaka replied. He knew that if those kinds of things were happening to Makoto, he would have made sure that the perpetrators would never get to leave the dungeon again. "Do you even have guards?"

"Yes, but they're all not as devoted as you. Mother just pulled them out of random places. My head guard was an air force cadet before Mother made her guard me." Nagito sighed. "Makoto's lucky to have guards as devoted as you are."

"As devoted as me? I'm the only one like this, really! Some of the other ones are...well, see for yourself." Kiyotaka stood up and went to the windows. Pulling back a curtain, he pointed at one of the guards who was supposed to be a lookout on the roof directly above Makoto's room.

Nagito looked out the window and at the guard, who was sitting on the roof. He was leaning back, propping himself up with his wings and holding a phone in one hand. The gaudy surfaces of Perspi and the harsh sunlight were reflected back into his face, but he was wearing strange glasses with dark-tinted lenses, effectively keeping the light from bothering him. He had headphones on and was tapping his finger on his phone screen, seemingly in time to whatever he was listening to.

"That guard doesn't look too attentive," Nagito observed. "That...reminds me of my own head guard, actually. She's exactly like that."

"If your head guard was like Dave, I'm surprised you've even survived!" Kiyotaka replied, shocked. How could Nagito live like this?

"Well, has Makoto ever taken combat training?" Nagito asked. When Kiyotaka told him that no, Makoto had not, he continued. "Huh. I guess it's just like you order-lovers to be okay with being weak just because you've always been weak. If he'd have taken basic training, maybe this wouldn't have happened. But he didn't. Well I have, because I can't just put my faith completely in the hands of all these other people." He neglected to tell Kiyotaka that he hadn't done too well with the training and had eventually dropped out. "Besides, yeah my guard is unattentive, but she's very good at stopping assassination attempts. She tries to arrest them, but there's always someone who bails the assassins out. You know, I think it's Mother."

"It seems that everybody wants you dead," Kiyotaka said. "If you hadn't done that to Makoto, I would honestly pity you! Even if you are a demon." A demon that has very nice wings, his brain interjected. He took the thought and threw it out again so that it would hit Dave in the head had it been a physical object. "Well! Are you done with breakfast? I need to leave now, there are other things I have to do around here." Like sit by Makoto's bedside, ignoring the fact that people might think he was too close to the heir. Now that he seemed to be vaguely interested in Nagito's wings, his feelings for Makoto didn't seem so wrong.

"I'm done, you can get out of my sight now," Nagito said, leaning back in his chair and using one of his wings to push the empty plate towards Kiyotaka. The guard stared at it blankly, unwilling to take such an order from someone who was in no position to make demands like that. Sure, there was no other way that plate was getting out of the tower, but Nagito hadn't needed to word it so rudely.

On the other hand, Kiyotaka remembered that Nagito's objective had been to kill Makoto. If he could help it, he wasn't going to spend extra time with a person who had tried to do that. While Makoto deserved justice, the fact that Nagito was eventually going to be killed meant that he did not have to be checked on at all, if it was deemed that he was useless as a source of information. That seemed like an attractive plan, as the less Kiyotaka saw of Makoto's attacker, the better.

Not having to go to the tower would get him to stop thinking of Nagito's wings, as well. They were the last things he wanted to think about, anyway. And so, Kiyotaka decided to heed the commands and took the plates and utensils.

"I'm going to go now, but I will return to ask you some questions about Drose!" Kiyotaka said, stepping out of the door.

"Good luck with that, I'm not feeling too inclined to just betray my family like that. They're still all I've got, you know." Nagito sarcastically raised his wing and saluted the guard. Kiyotaka's eyes went wide and he quickly turned and slammed the door shut. He hurried down the stairs again, but this time he made sure not to trip and fall.

"I need to stop," he said to himself. If he could lose control of himself whenever Nagito so much as did something with his wings that wasn't folding them behind him, then they were going to have a problem. Besides, Kiyotaka wasn't supposed to be attracted to demons. He was supposed to hate them, not spend time thinking about their wings. Even the fact that Nagito looked like a the angel heir was beginning to sicken him less, and instead...at this point, Kiyotaka was about ready to send Dave to handle the demon. Since Nagito wasn't going to cooperate and divulge any information, watching him required minimal effort. Dave could even sit there and play games on his phone all day and everything would be fine. He would, too, Kiyotaka knew Dave well enough.

He needed to remember that while Nagito might have looked nice, he had also done some absolutely reprehensible things to the person Kiyotaka loved. If Makoto knew that his guard had been fawning over his attacker's wings, it wouldn't end well. Surely, the angel heir would be fed up with Kiyotaka and fire him. Maybe Kiyotaka would even be charged with treason, as the only acceptable interaction with demons that angels could have was killing them. Perspi and Drose had always been intolerant of the opposite alignment at wartime. Wartime had been the normal state of things for several millennia.

Finding something else to do was a good idea, something like yelling at Dave for not keeping watch like he was supposed to. Dave was easy to take out frustrations on, he was always doing something wrong and never took being reprimanded to heart. Such frequent verbal tongue-lashings wouldn't frighten him or cause him to lash out in defense. Flying out at the first balcony he found, Kiyotaka went up to the roof and approached the other guard.

As he did, a tiny supply-carrying craft flew in, landing on the immense roof of the palace, feet away from Dave. The guard angel didn't even turn or seem to acknowledge the plane, and it was able to fly off without consequence, despite not having clearance to land on the roof. That was obvious, there was no reason for any kind of aircraft to land on the roof. Now that the surprise of seeing an airplane land on the roof with no consequence had faded, Kiyotaka ran over to Dave.

"Excuse me!" he said, tapping Dave on the shoulder.

"Wait, what did you say? Speak up man, my volume's higher than my bro after a party —" Dave began in an unnecessarily loud voice.

In response, Kiyotaka yanked the headphones off of Dave's head, forcing the other angel to look up on him. "Please tell me that's only a colorful metaphor and your brother really isn't using illegal drugs," Kiyotaka told him. "It would be a shame to arrest him, he's one of the best guards we have here!"

Dave frowned. "Are you here to talk about how my bro's so cool, cause I already get that shit like it's fresh out of the toilet and I'm at the bottom of the sewers —"

"That's enough similes, thank you," Kiyotaka said, cutting him off before he could go overboard with increasingly crude figurative language again. "Did you happen to notice something strange a few seconds ago?"

"Nah, it's all good in the Imperial District," Dave replied, turning towards the mentioned area again. "I can't really see what these guys down there are up to, but this is the Imperial District, I bet my ass it isn't anything illegal."

"Er...you can keep your ass, I believe you," Kiyotaka said. "But there was a supply plane that seemed to have landed on the roof by mistake earlier! We both know that nobody has clearance to land anywhere near the palace grounds, so why didn't you stop the plane from taking off and arrest the pilot for landing in a restricted area?"

Dave didn't react at all. He might have blinked, but because of his dark glasses it was impossible to tell for sure. "There was a plane that landed on the roof? God _damn_, why didn't anti-aircraft shoot it out of the sky?"

"It was a Perspi supply plane! Obviously our aircraft looks nothing like the things they use in Drose, and the people manning our anti-aircraft guns know the difference! No, the problem was that you weren't even paying attention! We need to be on high alert now that Makoto is comatose and especially vulnerable to being attacked —" Kiyotaka gasped for breath, trying to calm down before the thought of what could happen to Makoto _really _sent him into a tirade. "The point is, you should have arrested the pilot for landing in a place where planes aren't supposed to land."

"Oh, so it's an order thing," Dave said, nodding. He picked up a bottle of apple juice, drank some, and exhaled breathily. "Yeah, I don't get why you guys bother though, that guy's on our side. If I arrested him people in the army might their asses kicked because they needed those supplies, and I would like, get the Fuckup of the Year award, or something. The army general's gonna come up to me and pin a shitty paper medal all up on me." Dave took another sip of apple juice. "My job's fucking lame, anyway. If there's an actual air raid, all the action will still be with the anti-aircraft guys. Their job's way cooler than mine," he concluded.

"You may think that, but your job is more important. You're closer to Makoto, and therefore more responsible for his wellbeing." That was also why Kiyotaka was putting Dave under such scrutiny. He cared about Makoto more than anything else in the world, and anyone failing to protect the heir due to neglect or incompetence was just wrong, in his eyes. However, he felt that Dave didn't necessarily need to be fired unless some major chaotic event happened while he was on the job, proving he was unfit for it. Nothing like that had happened. Somehow.

"Well, is that all you got?" Dave asked before gulping down more apple juice.

"...Yes, I can't just waste all my time talking to you. Especially since you don't seem to care for protecting Makoto at all," Kiyotaka said curtly, unable to resist adding that last comment.

"I so totally do," Dave retorted as the head guard walked away. "I mean, it gets me paid...and shit like that."

Kiyotaka ignored that.

He flew back into the palace and decided he was going to visit Makoto again. His eagerness to do that was a bit creepy, but then again, it was his job. As the heir's head guard, he would have to be seriously neglectful if he didn't spend his time actually guarding Makoto, which meant being by him. He didn't necessarily need to be in the room with the heir, but he wanted to. Besides, it seemed better to be in the room in case someone tried to climb through the vent and attack Makoto. Kiyotaka wasn't ashamed of being paranoid, he loved Makoto and wouldn't be able to stand the idea of him dying. It was his fault that Makoto was comatose. If he had done what had happened in his dream, minus the weird demon Makoto, then everything would be just fine. But it wasn't.

"Nothing much has changed," the doctor informed him as he entered Makoto's bedroom. Noticing his downcast expression, she added, "That isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means that the chaos energy isn't making any headway at killing or turning him. We're trying to augment his immune system so he can expel the chaos energy, so hopefully he'll be back to normal in no time."

"O-of course!" Kiyotaka stammered, snapping out of it. "I have to have more faith in the heir, how could I not? He has a strong spirit, there's no way he won't live through this!"

The doctor just smiled at him. She knew enough to not just blindly believe that Makoto would pull through for sure, but she would allow others to think that way if they wished. "Well, would you like to be alone with him again? There haven't been any complications so far."

Kiyotaka nodded and sat down by Makoto's bedside again. "Sir, I'm so sorry," he said once the doctor had left. "I was looking at your attacker's wings, and I started to think..." He scoffed. "This is ridiculous! Of course I love you more than I like some demon's wings. Clearly."

Nagito was pretty smart. Learning that his family disliked him had given him some other skills, like the ability to pick up on subtle things other people did. He had felt Kiyotaka's gaze on his wings, and he realized what that meant. Charming the guard into letting him go didn't seem so difficult, after all. Unfortunately, it was the one escape plan that would ruin his reputation in Drose if word ever got out. He would be labeled an angel sympathizer, ruining his life forever. Angel sympathizers were doomed to be kicked out of Drose, and Nagito wouldn't have anywhere to go. Perspi sure wouldn't take him, because he was still a demon.

But then, he remembered that nobody loved him and maybe an angel would suffice. Beggars couldn't be choosers, after all. Even so, the fascination the guard paid to his wings was slightly creepy. Nagito wondered if this was how Makoto felt all the time, since he had been around the guard daily. Then again, the guard had cared about the angel heir so much — the fixation with Nagito's wings was just a passing fancy.

"Well, I can make it more than a passing fancy," the demon said to himself. Then he realized something. "Wait, why the hell am I talking to myself about this? This is already a terrible idea," he concluded. Escaping just so he could be caught in limbo, where no country would accept him, was a terrible idea indeed. The guard had walked in on him in a compromising situation earlier, anyway. Maybe he had just been embarrassed.

As much as he'd like to keep his dignity, though, the fact still stood that this was the best escape plan he had. "Best," of course, had nothing to do with the plan quality, instead having everything to do with how easily he could pull it off. If his mother could see him now, it would be the last thing she needed to officially disown him and make Hajime her successor. Then again, she might approve of the unorthodox tactics he used to get out. It would be the epitome of chaos. He needed to figure out how to quickly sweep the guard off his feet, but there were more important issues at hand.

"...I need a bath," he realized. This may not have appeared to be a problem, but as the heir of Drose, he had never taken a bath by himself. Instead, he had servants do it for him. He had never really thought it would be useful to learn how to bathe himself. There were other people who would do it for him and learning how was going to waste time he could spend on doing other things, like flying.

Obviously, this had never been a problem in Drose, where servants would arrive if he called for them, but now it was a big one. The guard probably wouldn't come back for a while, and he was the only person who had ever been in the tower. It was likely that nobody else could go in it. If he didn't return, then Nagito would have to deal with being dirty, which he had never had to do before. He was close to getting in the bathtub and trying to bathe himself anyway, but he decided against it. If he didn't know how, he could drown himself by accident and that would just be embarrassing.

To pass the time, he did what he did best — think about how badly his family treated him.

When he was younger, before he had a chance to disappoint his mother, she had thought that he was the best young demon in Drose just because he was her son. It was a fair assumption, but it had turned out to be wrong.

* * *

"Excuse me!" the queen had said, going over to interrupt her son and nephew, who were flying around in a hall and making a terrible mess. "Hey! What are you doing with that loser?" she asked, extending her arm and drawing her son away from Hajime.

"Huh?" Nagito looked back at his cousin, who was glaring at them. Being called a loser didn't really sit well with him. "Why's he a loser?"

"Because he's my useless sister's son," Junko replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "He can't fly as well as you can, it's obvious he won't be able to fight, either! Which is the only thing my sister's good at. Come on, let's find you something else to do. You're going to run this kingdom one day, you should get better stuff." If only that was true. But when Hajime was the one who showed signs of being a military prodigy just like his mother, Junko had changed her tune. Now Hajime was the one who was fit to rule, and Nagito was relegated to the lost cause. And if that wasn't enough, now his own mother was trying to get rid of him.

She might not have said it outright, but Nagito knew she wanted to. He was pretty smart, after all.

* * *

Loud knocking jerked Nagito out of his sulking. "Yeah, what do you want?" he called out, the way he would in Drose. If it was his mother, there'd be hell to pay, but suddenly he remembered he wasn't even in Drose. At least his mother couldn't punish him for being disrespectful in Perspi.

"Are you decent?" the guard asked. His voice was muffled coming from the other side of the door.

Nagito had to laugh a little at this. Because of what the guard had run into that morning, he was now hesitant to go in. "Yeah, I am, come in if you want. Which you will, I know what you're up to. Interrogations, right?" he asked as the guard came in.

The angel stopped in his tracks. "How did you know? Well...I suppose it's obvious, isn't it? But that's right! Again, I don't want to have to try and torture you for information, so please cooperate!"

"I'll tell you something if you'd do something for me first," Nagito replied. There, his mother could go fuck herself, because he had been able to use diplomacy, which was a good trait for someone who would lead a country. Then again, the only other nation Drose was in contact with was its eternal enemy. Diplomacy was nigh-useless on a large scale, but on a small one...

"What do you want? I'm not going to let you free, if that's what you want, though," Kiyotaka answered.

"Give me a bath," Nagito said.

If Kiyotaka had been holding anything, he would have dropped it. Since he wasn't, he substituted dropping an object with yelling "WHAT" as loudly as he could, which made the demon heir flinch. "Why would I do that?" he asked, recovering from his shock.

"Because I don't know how to bathe myself," Nagito replied. "I had no reason to do that when I could make others do it for me," he continued when the guard looked at him, incredulous.

"But now you can't, because I'm not going to do that," Kiyotaka decided.

"You'd give Makoto a bath if he asked you to, wouldn't you?" Nagito asked.

"Yes," Kiyotaka replied, a little too quickly. "But only because I'm his guard! That's almost like a servant, if you think about it!"

"Of course you'd jump at the chance to rub soap all over Makoto's naked body," Nagito said, completely disregarding Kiyotaka's justifications.

The guard turned red, almost the same color as the vest he wore. "Th-this has nothing to do with whether I'm attracted to the person or not! It's only because I'm obligated to do things for him —"

"If you don't give me a bath, it seems like you'd only bathe Makoto because you want to see him naked," Nagito pointed out. "Besides, I'll willingly tell you something about this assassination attempt if you'd do this for me."

"Well..." Kiyotaka began. The prospect of information was good, but it didn't quite make the situation less awkward. "All the other prisoners rarely get showers. You shouldn't expect to be treated any better."

"I checked, and there's a bathtub in here," Nagito said. "If I was able to, I could bathe whenever I wanted. And I kind of am being treated better since I don't have one of those crappy cells, so..."

"Fine!" Kiyotaka yelled, his wings briefly unfolding. "I'll give you a bath." Nagito took his coat off, but the guard moved to stop him. "What's the matter with you? Don't take your clothes off in front of me!"

"Ugh, none of my servants ever complained as much as you," Nagito commented. "What do you expect, though? I'm gonna take a bath with my clothes on?" Kiyotaka didn't say anything. "Just so we're clear, I'm not going to do that," Nagito had to add. "I don't have any other clothes. Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I don't look that bad naked."

"Why would you say that?" Kiyotaka asked. "You are making this much worse than it has to be! All I ask is you go take your clothes off somewhere else! Or do that here, and I'll go fill up the bathtub." Kiyotaka went into the bathroom and did just that, plugging the drain in the bathtub and beginning to fill it with warm water. He sat by the bathtub, enjoying the warm air that started to fill the room. If he didn't have to bathe a demon, this would be relaxing.

There was a knock on the bathroom door. "I'm done with...taking my clothes off," Nagito called out. "Wow this is awkward. When can I come in, I'm feeling a draft out here."

"Just...ugh, you can come in now, I won't be looking," Kiyotaka replied, ducking down and covering his eyes with his hands and wings. He waited until he heard a splash to look up. Nagito was sitting in the bathtub, his wings laid over his crotch. That wasn't so bad then, Kiyotaka wasn't going to get a faceful of anything unless he counted wings. "Well, this works out fine," the angel commented, getting some soap and a washcloth.

"Uh...thanks," Nagito said as Kiyotaka began to scrub him down. "If you didn't do this for me, I'd be stinking up the place sooner or later, which would be terrible. You wouldn't want to deal with that, would you?"

Kiyotaka muttered under his breath about how all nobles except for Makoto were lazy and thought they were entitled to ridiculous things like having others give them baths. He didn't noticed that Nagito was continuing to talk and his question had been rhetorical.

"...so what's your name, anyway? Don't worry, if everything goes the way you Perspins have planned it won't matter if I know anything about you. Can't give Mother any information if I'm dead, you know."

"Huh? Oh, I'm Kiyotaka!" the guard exclaimed, lathering up Nagito's back. He was careful to mind the wings, as he didn't know if Nagito would snap at him if he touched them or what. Besides, he didn't want to touch them for fear of thinking about things he wasn't supposed to think about demons, again.

"Can you tell me about yourself?" the demon requested. As could be expected, Kiyotaka didn't say a thing. "Oh come on, if you're pretty much the last person I'm ever going to talk to, I'd like to at least know something about you."

"There's nothing to say," Kiyotaka replied curtly. "Personality only gets in the way of my job! In order to be a more effective worker, I have to distance myself from those things." Nagito winced. Perspi really sounded frightening now. Where was the sense of individuality and why did they hate it so much? "Besides, I don't have much time to do anything besides guard Makoto," the angel continued. "Well I do now, but...well, here, all I've ever wanted to do in life is keep Makoto safe, no matter what." He sighed. He was sure doing a good job of that, Makoto had gone into a coma because he couldn't do more.

"Once again, Makoto must be really blessed if he has someone like you to look out for him," Nagito said. "My guards are...only my head guard does her job, sometimes. If she's not playing games on her phone. But is that really what you guys think about being individuals?" He inhaled sharply. "Angels are _weird_." And by weird, he meant distinctly creepy.

"Maybe we are," Kiyotaka said. "But it's better than not doing it, like you demons seem to! In fact, I think you're all very incompetent if you won't throw aside anything in the face of duty." In his disgust with demonkind, he became a bit heavy-handed in his scrubbing.

"Hey!" Nagito protested, scooting away from him. "I have sensitive skin, you know!" All he got out of his protest was a strange look from Kiyotaka. "What? It's true," the demon huffed, crossing his arms. "I don't do much — well, any strenuous activity, except for flying."

"Flying is near-useless in the long run," Kiyotaka replied in disdain. "You might as well not do anything at all, if that's all you'll do!" It was in Perspi, anyway, as regulating the airspace was difficult. Three-dimensional air travel was chaotic by nature, and so angels didn't make a habit out of it.

"Weird, people say that in Drose, too. And you know why?" A smirk crept over Nagito's face, assuring Kiyotaka that whatever it was couldn't be good. "They're all just jealous they can't fly like me, usually. Wings like these must not be common anywhere. Speaking of which, do you mind doing them now?" Staying as close to the front of the bathtub as he could, Nagito stretched one of his wings behind him, trying to keep it in the bathtub or at least close.

"I'm sorry, what?" Kiyotaka almost dropped his washcloth when he saw the wing practically shoved in his face. He didn't need this now. Coupled with how "doing his wings" could be taken, then...Kiyotaka was starting to suspect that this was another shock tactic. Nagito must have noticed him checking out his wings. Of course he hadn't been able to conceal his behavior well enough, angels like him just weren't conniving enough for things like that. For once, it wasn't a good thing. "I'll do that last!" he finally said, pushing the wing until Nagito wrapped it around himself once more. "Those wings are going to be hard to clean, probably."

"Just clean them at some point, I'm very fond of my wings," Nagito said, patting the dark leathery appendages to prove his point. "Without them I'd be good for nothing, anyway."

Kiyotaka sighed, but said nothing. Arguing with someone he barely knew was a waste of time, but he seriously doubted that someone like the heir of Drose would be useless. Whatever his mother said, his death would probably be a huge blow to Drose anyway. "Here, I'll wash your hair first," he offered, grabbing a nearby shampoo bottle and squeezing some of the contents into his hand.

Nagito scooted forward and let Kiyotaka work the shampoo into his hair. "So...do you pay attention to air races?" he asked, grasping at whatever he could think of to say.

"What?" Kiyotaka asked. "No, I have no reason to, but why are you asking?"

"I'm the undisputed champion of air races in Drose," Nagito answered proudly. "Really, I've been in a lot of big events. Some of which were televised, not that you angels would watch any demon shows or anything. Honestly, I'd rather do that instead of be the heir of Drose. Is there anything you'd like to do if you weren't Makoto's guard?"

"No!" Kiyotaka said without hesitation. "Protecting Makoto means everything to me, and I wouldn't give it up for the world! I can't imagine anything I would enjoy better than — well, this is something I shouldn't really say, never mind."

Instead of brushing it off, Nagito leaned forward, as if ready to hear that secret. "You can tell me, I'm marked for death anyway," he said, trying to reassure the guard.

Kiyotaka sighed again. "I can't imagine anything I would enjoy better than being in Makoto's presence." He noticed that Nagito was about to say something and dumped a jug of water on the demon's head before that could happen. Nagito glared daggers at him, wet hair hanging in his face.

"Sorry!" exclaimed Kiyotaka. "I had to rinse your hair out."

"You could have at least warned me," Nagito replied flatly. He shoved his bangs out of his eyes and immediately relaxed again. "At least the water here is warm. Drose is always cold, you know. There isn't much sun there."

"That sounds terrible," Kiyotaka said, trying to sympathize with him. "I couldn't live in a place like that, honestly!"

"I never said it was terrible. In fact, the bright light here is really annoying. Hate the cold, though," Nagito said. "At least I'll never have to be in the cold again, unless the executioner is an asshole and decides to freeze me to death or something. And the only reason an executioner would know if I hated the cold is if you said something about it. So don't be an asshole, or I'll —" The demon stopped, realizing his threats held no weight in Perspi. "I can't do anything, so don't be an asshole because I know you're not one. Please?"

Once again, Kiyotaka grew cold and distant. "If Makoto wants your execution to be one that would hurt you the most, I'd have no choice but to tell him," he replied. "He deserves it, after all."

"So justice is just, being an asshole? Angels are _weird_." That, it seemed, was Nagito's final verdict on angels. Then again, considering the circumstances, maybe in that case love was the source of the weirdness, and not angels. Angels were still odd from a demon perspective, though.

"I'm just doing it for Makoto's sake," Kiyotaka repeated. If he was doing it for love, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Besides, Nagito was a demon and any demons in Perspi were supposed to be killed immediately. Nothing said that they had to be killed in ways that were purposefully cruel, though.

"That's just wrong though," Nagito said. That made Kiyotaka freeze. What was the world coming to, when a demon had a better grasp on right and wrong than an angel did? This was a mistake, a momentary lapse in judgement. Passion and indignation at Makoto's fate had interfered with his reasoning.

"You...you're right," the angel admitted. "Here, how about I just...pretend not to know that you don't like the cold?" He frowned, realizing what that would entail. "I would have to lie to Makoto, though."

"What, is lying to him high treason, or something?" Nagito asked, rolling his eyes. "Back home, people _had_ to lie to Mother or she'd kill them for not saying what she wanted to hear. And then she'd kill them when she figured out that it wasn't true. You can never win with Mother. Besides, the cold never hurt me the most, my family did." That last addendum was nothing more than a quiet whisper. Nagito's dignity was only salvaged because Kiyotaka hadn't been listening.

"Sorry, what was that?" he asked. "I wasn't really listening because I didn't expect you to say it so quietly."

"Nothing. It's not the information I promised to give you, don't worry," Nagito reassured him. "Can you do my wings now? You already washed my hair and...everything else. Without getting embarrassed or anything. Do you actually have to give Makoto baths or something?"

"No," Kiyotaka replied, blushing slightly at the thought. "And...okay, fine, I'll —" The heir opened one of his wings again, and Kiyotaka froze in shock. "Okay!" he tried again. "Okay, I'll do it now." He picked up the washcloth and tried to wash the wing, but froze at the last second. "Okay! I'm going to wash your wings already!" It was more of a command to himself than an explanation to Nagito of what he was doing.

"So you're hesitating to wash my wings, but you didn't have problems doing _anything else_?" Nagito asked. Unless his memory had suddenly been screwed up, Kiyotaka had taken a washcloth to the heir's inner thighs without even blinking. And now, for some reason, he was having problems scrubbing a wing. Something had to be up.

"I'm not hesitating, I'm —" Kiyotaka stopped himself there, because there was no conceivable excuse he could make for his actions. The only thing left was to swallow his apprehension and do it. He worked quickly, scrubbing as fast as he could, for if he tried to take his time and think of what he was doing, it wouldn't end well, which was obviously a euphemism.

Due to his haste, the wings were clean in record time, and Nagito was left to sit in the bathtub while Kiyotaka drained the dirty water out of the tub, pouring clean water on the demon as he did so. "Baths are horribly inefficient!" Kiyotaka complained. "This place should have a shower installed!"

"I've never liked using showers. Reminds me of the rain," Nagito commented. "If I wanted to take a shower in Drose, I'd just run outside naked." When he saw Kiyotaka's horrified expression, he said, "Oh, yeah, that happens a lot in Drose. What do you think? There's laws against it?" He scoffed at the thought. "The royal family wouldn't stoop to that level, but we're not going to stop anyone who wants to. It's their choice to get pneumonia, we wouldn't try and interfere with anyone's fundamental rights." _Unlike you angels,_ he wanted to add, but his plan of action required being pleasant around Kiyotaka.

"But...that's a public disturbance!" Kiyotaka exclaimed, dumbfounded. "What about everyone who would be uncomfortable with that?"

"'Public disturbance' is the normal state of Drose, honestly," Nagito replied. "It's how chaos works, ever since The Great Enlightenment."

"The great _what_?" Kiyotaka asked. The water level in the tub was low enough for the water to make loud noises as it was sucked down the drain. "I've never heard of that."

"The event that first caused some of the angels to turn into demons," Nagito said. "You guys probably call it something derogatory like —"

"The Great Corruption!" Kiyotaka said. "That's what you're talking about. I guess you Drosens refuse to see how corrupt you really are, and changed the event's name!"

Wanting to avoid an argument, Nagito changed the subject. "Looks like that's all the water. Do you mind getting out of here? I know where some towels and things are; I looked around in here some when I first got here."

Kiyotaka nodded and left, returning to the main room. While Nagito was gone, he took the opportunity to open the curtains in the circular room and let some light in — if the demon heir wanted them closed, he could do that himself later. But for the time being, Kiyotaka was the one occupying the room, and he was letting light in because he wasn't fond of the darkness.

However, when Nagito walked into the room in a bathrobe, he flinched and shielded himself from the bright rays of sun with his wings. "Why did you have to open the curtains?" he asked. "Do I have to leave a note instructing you to leave everything in the room like I left it?" He was briefly reminded of hotels and laughed a little at that. The Imperial District palace had piss-poor customer service if he was going to die at the end of his stay in the tower.

"No, I'll remember." Looking over at the heir, Kiyotaka asked, "What, do you want me to dry your hair, too?" He had already given Nagito a bath. Nothing could be too bad, unless he wanted a wing massage or something. Kiyotaka wouldn't do that anyway — this was still a prison facility, no matter how luxurious it appeared to be.

The heir of Drose frowned at the question. "I'm not completely useless!" he exclaimed, his wings spreading with an audible snap. "Okay?" he asked, flapping his wings several times to shake out excess water. "I'm not, all right?" Taking a deep breath, he calmed down, took a towel, and began to dry his hair. When he was done he tossed the towel on the ground, earning a shudder from Kiyotaka.

"Don't just throw things on the ground like that!" Kiyotaka snatched the wet towel and hung it up in the bathroom. "Leaving it on the floor will cause water damage!" he explained, returning to the main room.

"I had people to pick those up for me, too," Nagito said. "Anyway...information. Actually, I'm going to change first." He picked up his discarded clothes and went over into the bathroom, shutting the door. A second later it opened slightly and his head popped out. "Is there laundry around here?" he asked. "If I knew I was going to be arrested, I would have brought a change of clothes with me."

"...no, this facility is not that equipped," Kiyotaka replied. "I could go get your clothes washed, though. But not now!" he exclaimed when the heap of clothes was thrown back across the doorway. Kiyotaka tossed the clothes back into the bathroom, then said, "I need the information you promised first."

"Information?" Nagito asked, biting his lip in deep thought. It didn't take long to remember his promise to tell Kiyotaka something, which had been the only way to get the guard to actually give him a bath. "Oh! I remember now. Hang on, I'm almost done getting dressed." Getting his wings through the wing slits in the backs of his shirts and jackets was always a problem. They were just barely the right size to fit through the vertical holes, and it took a lot of tugging to get them through. It was annoying and painful, but it was Nagito's fault for never getting around to having a tailor fix those wing slits, and now there would be no chance for him to. With a massive tug, he was finally able to get his wings into his coat. He heard the miniscule sound of fabric tearing and pretended like he hadn't. That coat was new — his old one had been shredded when he had flown too close to some fancy buttresses a week prior. When he had returned to the palace with a torn up coat, his mother had chewed him out for ruining his clothes when they were at war, and couldn't afford to spend much on anything else. She was one to talk, she loved fashion and would have a new outfit made for her every day. Nonetheless, Nagito got another coat made, and he was already ruining it. He was going to be executed, though, he should have been allowed to ruin the coat.

With the wing problem finally solved, Nagito threw open the door and left the bathroom. Kiyotaka was standing in the middle of the room waiting. "So," Nagito began, sitting down on the bed. "I feel okay with telling you this because this has to do with something failing to happen, by the way, but...this assassination plot was supposed to be bigger. The king, the queen, and the head of the military were also supposed to be targeted, not just Makoto. Actually, Makoto was the least important part of the whole operation, I was really only going to kill him for show."

Kiyotaka was floored. There was no way there could be any other demons in the Imperial District. Security had been upped, and any demon in the area would certainly be caught. "What — what's this supposed to mean?" he asked, irritated. No matter the reason or context, he hated it when Makoto was considered unimportant. Besides, that obviously wasn't the case since he was the only target to be attacked. "So there's other demons around? I need to tell everyone! Even the very heart of Perspi isn't safe!"

"No, no, wait! I wasn't done yet!" Nagito said. "That was _supposed_ to happen, but it didn't. My guards were going to come with me on the mission, but this morning, when I was woken up — by Mother, mind you — they were nowhere in sight. Mother said they had resigned and gone back to their old jobs, but I had to carry out my part of the mission anyway. So I went to Perspi and was stuck deep in enemy country, with nobody to help me." He smirked, self-satisfied. "I did pretty well under those circumstances, don't you think?"

"So you were abandoned by your guard? That's absolutely terrible! Those guards should have been punished, or forbidden to resign! Especially when they knew that they had a mission to carry out." Though Kiyotaka was relieved that the full mission had not been carried out, the story of negligent guards hit a little close to home. If any of Makoto's other guards did that, Kiyotaka would have them promptly executed. However, one part of Nagito's story struck him as odd. "A member of the royal family and his guards are not the best choices for a stealth assassination mission! Why did your mother make you do this?"

"It was actually Auntie, but I just know Mother put her up to it," Nagito explained, sighing. "And my head guard's family actually specializes in assassinations. She was supposed to lead the mission, but...let's just say, Perspi is very lucky that she was taken off the mission and put in the air force. Well, anyone in the Perspin air force who has to come across her in combat isn't going to be too lucky, but...well, it's obvious why Mother put me on this mission. She wants to get rid of me, so she can name Hajime as her successor instead of me. I don't even get why she bothers pretending to like me! Does she not want to hurt my feelings, or something? Because it isn't fucking working! Everyone knows she hates me, _everyone_!" At this point, Nagito was so into his tirade that he had leaped to his feet. "So why didn't she just drop the charade and kill me whenever she wanted? I don't get it, and honestly I don't want to understand. Well, she got what she wanted. I'm officially out of the way, yay for Hajime for being the new heir of Drose, or something. Woo-fucking-hoo." Rant over, Nagito flopped back onto his bed and clapped unenthusiastically for his cousin.

"I..." Kiyotaka hadn't been paying much attention to what had been said, but the sudden outburst had still startled him. "So you seem to have enemies from within, too. I can't believe anyone could be that deceptive or cruel, nobody in Perspi that I know of is like that!" The political intrigue in Drose was astounding. He almost began to think that Nagito was safer in Perspi than he was in his own country. "Demons are _weird_," Kiyotaka concluded, echoing what Nagito had said about angels earlier.

* * *

for fuck's sake ishimaru get your wing fetish under CONTROL

yeah, dave strider shows up playing flappy bird because i like dave and flappy bird, that's literally why


End file.
